Salvation Army volunteers train for disaster response

STANDISH, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- Salvation Army volunteers from across New England met in Maine Saturday to learn the skills to provide support during a disaster.

Volunteers from Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont spent the day in Standish learning how to provide resources for victims and first responders during a disaster. In the past decade, the Salvation Army has seen a growing need for emotional and spiritual care in disasters. The mission trains its volunteers in psychological first aid and stress management. It was training that proved useful in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings.

"The real heart of our work was at the family assistance center where we had emotional and spiritual caregivers come in and meet with family members, meet with those who had seen things," Eastern Territory Disaster Services Coordinator Mike Ortifelli said. "It was a horrific event, so that created some real critical incident stress in people's lives. So we were there to address some of those issues as well."

This was the first regional emergency disaster training the Salvation Army has held in northern New England.